UFO's

My wonderful secret pal sent me that beautiful yarn, needles, and a sock-knitting how-to book. I thought I would start the socks last Monday. So I read the book, and on Monday wound 1 skein into a ball. On Tuesday, I wound the second skein into a ball. I don't know how to wind it into center-pull balls, so I just wound it into regular balls. On Wednesday, I read the book again, along with a lot of head scratching. On Thursday, I read the book yet again.

I came to the realization that the socks would not, could not, be my carry-along project. (No, I still haven't cast on for the socks). I decided I needed an easy carry-along project, and went looking through my stash (heh-heh, I said stash. I always chuckle when I say stash). And I found some yarn I had forgotten I had - Oh! I remember you! I don't know what I'm going to DO with you, but I remember you! One of the yarns was the Frog Tree Merino I had gotten to make my Uncle a rib-knit scarf & hat. The first time I tried to make the rib-knit scarf, there was a lot of frustration and ripping out because I just couldn't get the hang of the pattern. When I saw the yarn in my stash, I thought AHA! his birthday is coming up in 3 months. And perhaps now I have enough experience to manage the rib knit. So I grabbed the yarn, some Lantern Moon needles (size 6, instead of the size 9's, when the pattern calls for size 8. I'm not sure why), looked up the rib knit stitch in my handy-dandy how-to-knit book, wrote down how many stitches to cast on, a paper, and a pen, and stuffed it all into my felted knitting carry-along project bag. When I cast on, I decided that 30 stitches was too few, and tried 34. And decided that those were too few, as well, and added 4 more. I was happy with 38. So I knit, and knit, and knit on my lunch, and on my breaks, and have about an inch done. Wow! and not nearly as much frustration as the last time I tried it, altho I do have a tendency to purl the knits and knit the purls, and have to fix that. I'm going to try stitch markers in the hopes that that helps. But all in all, I'm quite happy. And I absolutely love this yarn. It's so soft, and fluffy, that yes, I just want to roll around in it.

So at some point this busy, busy, busy weekend, I also need to cast-on the socks. I'll once again have 4 UFO's.